Many attempts to combine the bulk-generating benefit of throughdrying with the dewatering efficiency of wet-pressing have been disclosed over the past 20 years, but instead of delivering the best of both technologies, what often resulted were processes that fell short of their goal, not only regarding the rate of production and the energy costs for dewatering, but also regarding product characteristics. An example of a promising process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,426 issued Sep. 11, 2001 to Edwards et al., which is herein incorporated by reference. This process utilizes a high pressure dewatering nip formed between a felt and a smooth impermeable belt to increase the wet web consistency to about 35 to 48 percent. The dewatered web is then transferred to a “web-structuring” woven fabric with the aid of a vacuum roll to impart texture to the web prior to drying. While the process of Edwards et al. is effective for relatively high basis weight webs, it is not well suited for processing light weight tissue webs at high speeds desirable for commercial applications because of the difficulty associated with transferring low basis weight wet webs, which have virtually no strength, from the smooth belt to the web-structuring fabric. In addition, it has been found that the web-structuring fabrics disclosed for use in such a process result in a tissue that is gritty feeling with insufficient softness.
Therefore there is a need for an improved soft, high bulk, lightweight wet-pressed tissue.